1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to telephony systems and more particularly to a system for interfacing application elements with telephony elements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current telephony systems are fairly rudimentary, having changed very little from the basic principles of early telephony. Early systems often utilized switchboard operators for making connections between calling and called parties. By using computer technology, the need for such operators has been reduced to providing assistance in only special circumstances.
Other technological advances have turned telephony systems into an information transfer network or data highway. Facsimile is one of many examples which use the telephony system as an information transfer network. Perhaps the heaviest use of telephony systems comes from simple voice phone calls between calling and called parties. This interaction however, takes least advantage of telephony system capabilities.
Moreover, a typical user only has the most basic of equipment, which is designed for mere real-time voice transmission. The telephony system, however, is capable of transfering other infomation in addition to voice, and is also capable of providing a variety of information transfers which more fully utilize the available bandwidth and network capabilities of the telephony system.
The typical PBX is a classic example of a technology whose power has outstripped the available means of delivery. The average user makes use of only a tiny fraction of the full capability of most modern phone systems. The standard telephone handset is a human-interface bottleneck. At best, it is characterized by rows of buttons which must be labeled because there is no conventional mapping between position and function. Unfortunately, the labels give no clue as to the sequence in which the buttons must be pressed to accomplish a given operation. The presence of multi-function buttons (Transfer/3-Way Conference) adds further confusion to the picture.
While telephone companies have used computer technology to take advantage of, and to advance the potential of, the telephony system, the individual user has not been able to exploit the potential to the same extent. The closest an individual user comes to exploiting the potential of a telephony system is when a phone answering machine is used, and perhaps accessed remotely.
The telephone is really just a primitive terminal. A connection to another terminal is established by lifting the receiver to signal that network services are desired and then inputting a sequence of numbers which identify the terminal connection. The connection is terminated by hanging up. These simple operations provide convenience in creating a simple connection, but other aspects of the phone system require users to keep track of a variety of details.
For example, phone numbers are often memorized or kept manually in a handwritten notebook which must be carried around at all times. Address books, index cards, and massive lists printed on cheap paper and bound in unwieldy tomes are also frequently used. But storage is only part of the problem. Before they can be used, the numbers must be accessed--retrieved from memory, looked up in the card file or directory. And since numbers change over time, they must also be periodically updated. Storing numbers electronically in personal or on-line databases can mitigate the problems of retrieval and maintenance to some extent, but after it is located the number must still be manually transferred to the telephone set.
A telephone set also provides a less than ideal user interface in the case of operations which are more complex than establishing a simple one-to-one connection. In the case of a conference call, for example, the average user needs to check the reference manual to determine what sequence of keys to use: is it "*7" or "*8"? One alternative is to provide a special telephone set equipped with a row or two of extra buttons--the telephony equivalent of function keys on a computer keyboard, except that the labels on telephone buttons are typically a little longer: "TRNSF" for call transfer rather than "F6".
Therefore, there is a need to untap the potential of the present telephony system, especially the information transfer and network capabilities of the system.